Is Love Truly Stronger Than Death?
by BloodandRosePetals
Summary: Just because a hero lives in a world full of danger with power-driven nemeses, it doesn't always have to be that way. This time the turtles experience something a bit more down to earth. They witness one after another of beloved people lose the battle for life. Mournful and frightened, how will the brothers pull through this time?
1. Chapter 1

"Donnie, come on!" complained Mikey for the fifth time. "Can we not go walk around or something? Parkour?...Hey! I have an extra skateboard—"

"Mikey, for the millionth time, I'm busy! I'm trying to decipher exactly where The Shredder and his Goons are located so we can keep our asses safe..."

After Shredder found out Donatello tricked him and was almost killed by his Goons—Bebop and Rocksteady—the turtles went into hiding for their own safety. Since the enemy had no current knowledge of the turtles laboratory whereabouts, Leonardo demanded Don and Mikey stay in the sewers in the safety of their home. In the meantime, Donnie searched for their enemies location on his tracking unit while Leo and Raph scoped the area above ground. Because of this, it had been two weeks stuck at home with only Donnie to keep Michelangelo company and he had been too busy to hang out with his energetic younger brother making Mikey all the more antsy.

"Pleeeeaaase?" Mikey begged.

"I'm not going to tell you again..."

He said not another word in reply.

Saddened and frustrated, Michelangelo went to his room and sulked. He laid down on his bed, rolled over to his stomach, and stared at the wall.

"I can't just sit here and do nothing..." he told himself as he kicked his feet back and forth in the air. "What about baking something? I like doing that..." But he shook his head. "...I want to go outside. I want to have an adventure. Do something fun. I have too much energy. I just wish Donnie would play with me so I'd have something to do..."

"Awe!" said a deep Russian accent at Mikey's doorway. "Little Michelangelo is sad, boo-hoo!"

Mikey couldn't turn over fast enough before Rocksteady grabbed the top rim of his shell and held him up in the air. Michelangelo screamed from surprise.

"Let me down!" he yelled at the large humanoid rhino. Rocksteady decked him in the face knocking him to the wall. Before Mikey could grab for his weapons, Bebop held him down while Rocksteady held his sledgehammer high above his head, ready to crush little Mikey's skull in.

However, Rocksteady's hammer fell backwards when Donatello leaped on his back. The deadly weapon dropped to the ground as Donnie kept a grip around Rocksteady's throat.

Bebop rushed to his friend's aide allowing Mikey to break free from his heavy weight. Michelangelo reached for his Nunchaku, but Donnie quickly shouted, "No, Mikey!" Donatello was forced to think on his feet. Just before they could attack, he bolted passed them to his younger brother. He grabbed him and ran passed the lounge area.

Don proceeded to push Mikey into a hiding spot.

"Just stay right here..." he whispered.

"Donnie!" He was filled with shock. "Ninja's don't hide! They _fight_!" His voice cracked on the last word.

"Look, Mikey..." he laid a hand on his shoulder. "These guys are different from the people we normally fight. I've seen what they can do. I remember the battle we had last time—Believe it or not, Metalhead is stronger than you. And he was so badly injured by them...If that could have been you or anyone else, you would have died for sure. I can't let what happened to him happen to you too. Now, stay here and whatever you do, don't make a sound..."

Without another word said he backed out into the open leaving Michelangelo scared and confused.

Bebop and Rocksteady were quick to catch up. Donatello swung hard at Bebop's snout, but Bebop ducked just in time. With a heavy fist, Rocksteady knocked Don across the temple and onto the ground. Bebop held him down with his full weight.

"Where is Michelangelo?!" Rocksteady forced. His sledge hammer hit the ground near Donatello's head. "Tell us, or I shall crush you!"

"You're too late!" Donnie strained. "You can't get him! He's already made it to the surface!" Rocksteady appeared unfazed.

"That's alright." He picked up his sledgehammer. "We still have _you_ to take care of..."

No one, not even Donatello, expected what happened next.

* * *

 **...Meanwhile...**

April, gazing out the window of her apartment, felt a sudden jolt of fear and became quite fidgety. This sudden change of emotion made the turtle brothers concerned and decided to ask what was wrong.

"I don't know..." she explained. "I just have a bad feeling..."

Leonardo looked confused.

"What do you mean, ' _bad feeling_ '?"

"Well, just a bit worried...Do you think you could you check on the guys for a minute?"

Leonardo told her confidently, "Of coarse. But I'm sure they're just fine."

"I agree with 'im," Raphael told her. "We haven' laid eyes on the Goons, yet. They should be alright..." But suddenly, Raph's expression changed dramatically. "Uh, oh..."

"What is it?"

Raph showed him his pager. "I just got Donatello's alert."

Before Leo could react, the phone rang. The caller ID was that of the turtles home phone.

Leonardo answered very concerned. He didn't even have to say a hello before he heard the scared sobs of his little brother Michelangelo on the other side.

"...Leo..." he said still sobbing.

"Mikey?!"

"...Guys, I need you..." he said ever so softly in between breaths. "...Oh, God, please, no..."

"Mikey, calm down, little bro. Calm down..."

"What's happenin'?" asked a fearful Raphael. "What's going on? Is Mikey okay?"

"I don't know, Raph. He's crying really bad..." Leonardo set down the phone and put it on speaker. Now everyone was able to hear the mournful sobbing.

"Mikey, tell us. What is it?"

Michelangelo cried a bit more before speaking.

"There's something wrong..."

"Yeah?"

"...It's Donnie..."

There was a pause. The tension thickened. They all hoped and prayed the news about their beloved brother Donatello wasn't what they thought.

"Wh-what about Donnie? What's wrong with him?"

Tension building even further, Mikey wept mournfully into the phone, "...Donnie's dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone's, even Casey's, heart dropped from mortification. Leonardo backed away from the phone in shock.

"W-we h-have to get to the lab...NOW!"

Raphael didn't argue.

The two brothers bolted from April's apartment in a fit of fear and anticipation. Leaping out the eighth story window and into the nearest manhole, they made their way through the sewers with weapons drawn.

The cement door to their home opened and the turtles barged in. It was almost pitch black; the lights had been knocked clean out.

"Mikey?!" Raphael called frightened for his brothers' safety. "Donnie?! Answer me!"

There was a sudden moan in the next room. Raph and Leo took no time to heed its call. Hoping to see either of their little brothers, instead they found their sensei, Master Splinter, lying on the floor with blunt force trauma to the head.

"DAD!" they cried. Seeing their father hurt in such a way brought the tears to Leo's eyes. He grabbed a small blanket and folded it up to act as a pillow for his father's head.

"Sensei..." Leo began trying not to cry. "Who did this to you? What happened?"

Splinter muttered beneath his breath, "...Shredder..."

Leo and Raph looked at each other in utter shock.

"Shredder's Goons...They were here? In our home?"

"But how, Leo? W-we hadn' seen them in so long...An-and Donnie's tracker—How could this have happened?..."

"I have no idea...But I have to search for Donnie. I just hope it isn't true..." With that being said, Leo shot from his kneeling position and out into the lounge. Raph, wanting to follow, decided to stay and continue tending to his father's wounds.

He took off his mask and used it as a clothe to help stop the bleeding.

"You're gonna be alright," Raph assured. "Yeah, you'll be alright..." His father's sad, dark eyes seemed to penetrate his making it even harder to hold back the tears. Splinter noticed how saddened Raphael had become and couldn't help but to ask why.

"What is wrong, my child?"

"To admit," He wiped his tears,"just been a series of unfortunate events. You bein' hurt and all..." Raph took in a breath before speaking again. "And...I don' want you to freak out, but...I'm really worried about Donatello. See—"

"I know." Master Splinter rested his hand on top of his. "I overheard the fight...I as well fear the worst for your brother."

"Go," Splinter whispered. "Find your brothers..."

"But—"

"Make sure they are alright. I'll be fine..."

With only slight hesitation, Raphael stood and ran to the openness of the living room. It was too dark to see anything for the longest. However, the lights suddenly flickered to life when Leo flipped the breaker upstairs.

"I'll search up here!" he called.

Raph turned his attention to the living area and began calling his brothers' names. No answer was given. So, Raph resorted to begging and trying not to cry.

"Please!" His eyes were wet with tears. "Mikey! Donnie! Answer me..." He tried his hardest to keep his mind from spiraling.

When Raphael turned to the kitchen, he finally spotted one of his missing brothers. Mikey, whom appeared to be in a state of shock, was cowering beside the counter staring blankly with the house phone held tightly in his hand.

Enthused, Raph called to Leonardo that he had found their youngest brother unharmed.

"Mikey, are you okay?!" Raphael tried to hold back the tears. "Did they hurt you?"

He didn't reply; he just sat staring into nothingness.

Leo rushed down the stairs and Raphael called him over.

"God, Mikey," Leonardo was dismayed at his condition. "You look like you'd seen a ghost..." He stroked the back of Mikey's shell in an attempt to comfort him. "Can you tell us what happened?" But he still refused to acknowledge their presence.

They were both very confused until Raphael realized something. He could see an object out of the corner of his eye, but was too frightened to turn and see what it was.

"Leo?..." Raph's tone of voice changed. "He's __lookin'__ at something..."

Both of the turtle brothers were hesitant in turning their heads to see what Michelangelo was keeping his eyes on. But when they did, they regretted it immediately.

The air fell stale.

Their hearts dropped in their chests, heavy with despair. Raphael's cheeks soon became wet finally allowing the tears to fall. Leo couldn't bare the sight, and went to the kitchen sink to have his sick moment.

Donatello was lying on his stomach with a large crack in the middle of his shell. There was so much blood...it was unreal.

No words could describe the kind of pain and torture they felt holding the bloody body of their younger brother in their arms. Especially Mikey, still staring with a glazed over expression at his older brothers corpse. Having watch him die in front of him not moments before the turtles arrival was the cruelest torture a fragile mind like poor Michelangelo's could ever endure.


	3. Chapter 3

Their lives had changed forever.

One less ninja on their team. One less bedroom in their home. One less hero...One less brother.

Donatello laid on a table in the back room of their home with a cover over his body. Out of anyone, Mikey wasn't the one to visit him before burial despite he being the closest to Donnie. Raphael was the one to step into the room. He was ready to say his final goodbyes, however just before he pulled the cover off his head, Leonardo stepped in.

He stood in the door frame with a dazed look upon his face.

"Raph?" His voice was shaky at first. He wiped his face of any tears before turning to Leo. "I think you need to come see this." That didn't sound good.

Leo lead Raphael through the lobby and upstairs to a storage room the turtles barely ever used. Inside sat old machinery Don kept away when there wasn't enough room in his lab to keep it. Leonardo pointed to the very back at a dark corner of the room. There, a large hole had been made in the rock by a very durable instrument. It was the beginning of a tunnel that led to the surface about a mile away from the city.

Raphael couldn't get a word out of his mouth. He wasn't able to grasp the fact that he and Leo had not spotted Shredder's Goons only because they had slipped right under their noses.

Raph's rage intensified.

He punched the wall next to him, cracking it slightly, and almost breaking his hand. Grasping his hand in pain, he shouted, "WHY?!"

All he could think about was if only he could have searched the grounds far off from the city, he could have found the dig sight and stopped the Goons. If only he could have gone to the utility room for some reason—any reason at all—at the perfect moment catching them red-handed, then he could have been able to stop them before anything bad happened. If only he had left April's apartment immediately once he had received Donnie's alert, then he would have been able to make it home and rescue Donatello in time. To him, all of that was far too simple, but he didn't do any of it. So, he blamed himself for such misfortune.

Raph leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground still grasping his hand in pain.

"Raph, it's not _your_ fault this happened...It's not mine _either._ There was nothing we could have done. But now that we know this tunnel is here, we should try our best to fill it up so that no one—the Goons nor the Foot Clan—may return through it. We have to keep our guard up _high_ from now on. Expect the unexpected and stay on your toes. We can't allow what happened today happen to anyone else."

There was a pause.

As much as Raph didn't want to believe it, he sighed and agree.

After wrapping up his brother's wrist, Leo sat down on the couch. He didn't turn on the TV, however; there was too much thought in mind to watch anything. Raph gazed from afar at the expressions of Leonardo as he stared into nothingness. He could see now how much the accident hurt him as well. His face held no tears, but held the unmistakeable look of horror. Mourn. Utter disbelief. He knew then, he blamed himself the same as Raphael had. If only they could have done something...If only.

* * *

Mikey suddenly came to mind. He and Raph had never been much of talkers. But it was important that he check on him. Mikey hadn't been seen in what felt like days, being locked up in his room since the incident that morning.

He trudged his way up the stairs and down the hall. Turning the corner of Michelangelo's bedroom, he could barely see it was so dark. However, he could see enough to tell the silhouette of his brother sitting at the end of his bed.

Raph flipped the bedside lamp on and looked at Mikey. His head was down.

"Hey, bud," Raph told him in a trying manner. "How you feelin'?" But he didn't have to answer. Poor little Mikey looked like he'd gone to hell and back. Raphael got down on his knees in front of his little brother so they'd be face to face, but before he could speak, Mikey uttered, "Go away."

Thinking on what to say, he didn't want to sound like an asshole as always. Nor sound like when he _tried_ being sensitive because he ended up sounding like more of an ass on accident...So, he put himself into Leo's shell.

"I can tell you're hurt real bad. But I can tell you you're not alone. "—Yeah, that sounds like something Leo would say. Keep going— "We had a real bad morning and we're all in need of some kind of relief. So, what do you say headin' to bed early and we wake up tomorrow and do somethin' together, eh? You, me, Leo, and even dad if his head's feelin' any better. Get our minds off all this for awhile?"

Against all odds, he cracked a small grin, but it faded quickly.

Raphael tried to keep his heart from breaking.

"I'm just as hurt as you are," he said a little softer than before as he held back the tears. "I've cried more times today than I've ever cried. I'm breakin' stuff, I'm blamin' myself...I can't think straight anymore."

There was a pause. Mikey finally looked up from the floor, but hadn't turned to look at him.

"I didn't know," his voice sounded just as broken as his appearance, "how much it hurt losing someone you love. I guess you'll never know how much you love someone until their gone. And when they are, you wish you could take back all the times you fought with them and how you weren't around. Replace them with better memories." His sad eyes panned to his. "But I don't remember anything before this morning. All that's been repeating in my head is watching him die over and over and over again."

What he said just then, hit Raph. Hit him hard.

The cogs were now spinning wildly in his head. Mikey had been at home with Donatello when he died. And now he knew that Mikey had _watched_ as his beloved older brother was murdered right in front of his fragile eyes.

Raph no longer felt sorry for himself about what happened. Seeing it now from Mikey's point of view, he was now angry—infuriated—for not thinking of his little brother nor his safety. All he had worried about the entire time was only for the other.

Had Raphael never cared _enough_ about his little brother without him realizing it until now?

He wanted nothing more at that moment in time than to leave Mikey's room to his own, wrap a rope around his neck and throw himself off the tallest object because of his negligence. For, Raphael felt that _he_ should have been in Donnie's place. For _many_ reasons.

He wasn't a good enough leader, he wasn't fun enough, and he wasn't intelligent enough. All he knew how to do was have a temper. And think mostly about himself, nonetheless.

Overcome with emotion, he threw himself into Mikey's arms and embraced him in their first real brotherly hug. Raphael apologized deeply despite knowing that wouldn't have changed anything, but it needed to be said.


	4. Chapter 4

Raphael kept his promise, and they all left home to visit April at her apartment. Master Splinter was warned against going, but wanted to leave along with the rest of them. He had no desire of staying at home knowing his son was in the other room.

Along the way, he had some minor complications complaining about a headache. At April's apartment, the boys sat on the couch allowing Sensei to relax in the reclining chair with a Tylenol and some water.

The family was disgusted when April made Donatello's specialty tea for them. She wasn't being insensitive, however. She explained that she made the tea to express to them how Donatello may be gone from physical form, but hadn't gone from existence. He would always be there. The one who left behind such unforgettable memories.

"His tea being one of them," April continued. "It always calms me down. I remember him making it for me the first time we met."

"His tea calmed me down too," Leo agreed. " And I don't even like tea."

Raph added, "I liked how that was his thing, ya know? Like how Mikey got his music, Leo got his sketches, I got my weights, and Don had his herbal tea."

"And every time one of us makes his tea," said April, "he'll be right there ready to sit down and drink it with you."

The group smiled. She always knew what to say in dreadful situations.

Don no longer being around was going to be hard to accept for the brothers, but they knew they'd get passed it somehow. Donatello being gone, however, would take a tole on the Michelangelo more than anyone ever thought possible...

Mikey stayed at April's apartment too scared to go home. Their father could take the headache no more and wasn't able to walk. So, Leo offered to carry him. When they reached the lair, Leonardo laid Splinter down on his bed and set pain medication on his bedside stand with some water.

"We've got to figure out a way to help Master Splinter," Leo said to Raph.

"It was 'cause o' that head injury."

"I know this sounds a bit upsetting, but he might have brainal hemorrhaging."

"But if he does, we won' know what to do. Only Don would've. What are we gonna do about 'im?"

"Well, there's no point in trying to help other than what we know. We're inexperienced in that field of medicine."

"But we gotta do _somethin',_ Leo." Raphael couldn't bare the thought of something being wrong with the only father they'd ever known. "We can't lose Dad, too."

"I know. And we're not going to. We'll think of something..."

"But what if we don't? We'll be brotherless _and_ fatherless."

" _Nothing_ will happen, Raph. I promise. I don't think my heart can handle losing anyone else..."

Raphael looked at Leo closely through the dimness. He was looking at the kitchen table in front of him. There were tears there. The guilt Raph felt was heavy. He had forgotten another important soul in his family. One that he had been neglecting for quite some time.

"Hey, Leo?" Raph broke the sudden silence. Leo answered but his voice trembled from holding back the sobs. "Stand up."

"Why?"

"Just...stand up. Please."

Confused, he did as told. On his feet, Raph stood as well and stepped over to him. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around his older brother. He was shocked at first, but then Leo did the same in return. The embrace wasn't as warm as they'd both wanted. It was much more awkward and new to them since they hadn't really hugged before. So, instead of them feeling better, they felt even worse.

"Thank you," Leo told him sincere as he pulled away. For, all he cared about was that he was trying.

"Eh, whatever. You look like you needed it."

"I looked like I n—Are you feeling okay?" -He reached for his brothers forehead- "Do you have a temperature?" Raph swatted his hand away.

"Man, stop. I jus' know how upset you prob'ly are and I don' want you to feel that way."

"Raph...I appreciate it. But you aren't the kind of person to show _care_ for anyone is all." Expecting him to make a smart ass remark, he was surprised when he didn't.

"I know I ain't the easiest person to get along with. I'm just the kind o' person who don't like that side o' me to show...But I guess _now_ is a perfect time to change." Leo honored him for saying that. He was willing to be a little nicer knowing he wasn't the only one in pain.

"Hey, uh, so...are we getting along?"

"Nah, man," Raph said sarcastically. "I hate your guts. That's why I gave you a hug." Raph rolled his eyes in a playful manner. Leo chuckled. "Well, I mean...For the first time, I think we may be. Yeah."

Leo's grin went away. He just now thought of something so dreadful.

"Did it really have to take the death of our brother for us to get along?"

Raph didn't answer right away. Not because he had to think about it. He already knew the answer. Raph said with a heavy heart, "No." It really didn't have to take Donatello's murder for Leo and Raph to finally have a connection. And for finally realizing that, Raph said more broken than ever, "...I'm sorry."


End file.
